Designer

Alex Walderman

Senior Client Manager

Jill Williamson

Senior Client Manager

Vince Guzzi

As Managing Partner of Watt International, Vince leads a globally recognized integrated retail agency that delivers strategic and creative services to enable retailers to position themselves for growth and success. Vince is both a seasoned and multi-disciplined strategist who applies a holistic view to assess brand and business challenges. Vince has a solid track record of delivering solutions that get in-market results and build lasting brand equities for clients, evidenced by the market leading brands he has worked on across the world, increasing shareholder value and creating award-winning work along the way.

Having spent a number of years working in market research, consumer insight, strategic planning, and business consulting, Vince brings a solid background encompassing both agency and client side experience. He has worked with leading national and global brands in the consumer packaged goods and service industries, and with leading retailers on a global scale.

Mike Grace

Mike leads Watt’s Finance & Operations teams and is responsible for the diverse portfolio that makes up our back-office operations. While these activities are usually less visible to clients, his work ensures that our projects are delivered on budget and on time. He sees his role as delivering the framework to build success for our clients, and as such is constantly thinking about ways to streamline and contemporize our ways of working, from constantly refining our project management tools to ensuring that our bills get paid on time and that the office runs smoothly.

His focus is always on anticipating challenges that could interrupt efficient delivery of projects and ensuring that our teams have suitable resources to maximize productivity. Mike considers himself to be highly detail orientated, a skill he developed in his early years working in the audit practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Jean-Paul Morresi

Jean-Paul oversees all of our creative output here at Watt, providing direction and guidance for our environmental, identity, package and graphics design practices. A key part of his role is mentoring our creative teams and shepherding projects from initial pitching to prospective clients through to design strategy, concept creation and execution.

Throughout the two decades Jean-Paul has worked as a key member of our team, he has accrued a wealth of international experience through leading our Strategic Creative divisions at offices in Stockholm and Dubai, and in overseeing creative developed by our Shanghai team.

Jean-Paul is a graduate of the University of Toronto with a degree in Architecture, and has held the position of Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture, Landscape and Design Thesis Program.

Donna Davis-Young

VP Human Resources

hr@wattisretail.com

During her long tenure at Watt, Donna has led the Human Resources (HR) function, and sees herself as the fulcrum between the company and our teams. As leader of our people and practices, she views Watt’s employees as our most valuable resource, and works to ensure that we are able to attract and retain the best people to meet the evolving needs of our clients.

A key part of her role is understanding the evolving culture of work, and ensuring that our teams have access to services and resources that help them achieve strong work-life balance, in order to enable them to produce highly differentiating and effective work.

Donna’s strength is reflected in her history of speaking at conferences on a variety of HR topics and her success in continually evolving Watt’s HR practices in the ever-changing world of retail design.

Inder Bangari

Senior Director, Strategy

ibangari@wattisretail.com

Inder brings a unique combination of skills to his role as Senior Director, Strategy. His expertise and experience across Private Label Strategy, Research & Insights, and the development of truly differentiating positioning for retail brands make him a key partner across the many programs we work on for our clients.

He sees his key strength as his ability to distill data from a wide variety of sources – from financial analysis, market research, and secondary sources – to provide actionable insights and benchmarks that lead to sound and effective marketing and retail strategies. He has a deep understanding of both client and stakeholder needs, and encourages clients to think differently about their brands and to focus on the needs of their customers.

His ‘can do’ attitude epitomizes Watt’s commitment to delivering excellence for our clients irrespective of the challenges they face.

Inder joined Watt after more than a decade working in creative agencies in India and the Middle East, including a stint at DDB’s Dubai offices, which included the production of work that won coveted IPA Effectiveness Awards.

Brian Bettencourt

Brian has shaped the focus of the Environmental Design practice here at Watt. He has designed spaces across virtually every format and retail category, from food and supermarkets, to pop-ups, apparel, movie theatres and restaurants. There is not a design challenge that Brian will steer away from and, as a result, Brian is a multi-award-winning designer, recognized for his work on many major retail and other brands, including Häagen-Dazs, Longo’s, Town Shoes, and Simons.

Brian’s design point of view was shaped by his education in the anthropology program at Carleton University, and the Interior Design school at Algonquin College in Ottawa. His cultural and design training inspired his passion for creating retail and service environments that work both functionally and aesthetically to drive sales results.

Patrick Carron

Patrick has a passion for delivering mouth-watering creative across our retail and packaged goods client bases. This passion stems from the earliest days of his career as a cook on the frontlines of food service. This exposure still inspires him as a creative lead, actively searching for effective ways to romance shopper and consumer relationships with food. He brings brands to life across all communication touchpoints, from digital, in-store and packaging through to traditional print and out-of-home solutions.

As a creative, he seeks to find new ways to communicate the joys of food, from delivering a tongue in cheek approach to Price Chopper’s association with cultural activities to communicating appetite appeal on packaging programs.

Patrick’s work is highly recognized, and he has won numerous awards, including a PAC gold award.

Ian Cooke

As a key member of our client management team here at Watt International, Ian prides himself on being the connective tissue between our clients and our teams. In building strong relationships, Ian’s focus is not on selling, but on meeting some of our clients’ most difficult challenges with creative solutions. He prides himself on delivering the right solutions for clients and steering them away from rote services that do not answer business challenges.

Ian’s background in events, promotions and retail activations has provided him with an innate understanding of the drivers of shoppers’ behaviour, and how our clients can develop a customer experience that differentiates them in the highly competitive retail environment.

He is most proud of his work across major North American retailers like Canadian Tire and Longo’s, and the revolutionary creation of the Market 32 brand for Price Chopper.

Juan Esquijarosa

Juan is a veteran of the retail design industry, with four decades of experience delivering retail experience solutions to clients across North and South America and Europe.

Juan’s keen ability to understand the challenges our clients face and deliver solutions that meet shopper needs has led him to build relationships that last decades. These strong partnerships have included some of the most challenging projects here at Watt.

During his time at Watt, Juan has worked on many diverse projects, but he is most proud of his work on the Costanera Center, one of South America’s best performing mall developments. Unlike the typical one- or two-storey malls seen most often in North and South America, the Costanera concept is unique in that the mall development is an impressive six storeys high.

Juan’s extensive portfolio of projects completed on time and on budget is a testament to his unwavering client focus and his commitment to driving results.

Laura Guthrie

VP Client Development

lguthrie@wattisretail.com

Laura joined the Watt client management team 8 years ago as the team lead on the McDonald’s account. She is responsible for bringing the brand to life at the most important customer touchpoint – the restaurant. This involves the strategic planning and creative execution of McDonald’s marketing calendar, ensuring new products get the support they need while sustaining customers’ core favourites. Every aspect of the customer’s path to purchase needs to be considered to drive the desired customer purchase behaviour. Some of her most successful projects have been the launch of McCafé, Signature McWraps, Premium Beef and Chicken platforms, and Free Coffee promotions. During her tenure, Laura has successfully expanded Watt’s role with the client beyond print POS, to digital, video, packaging and retail design.

Laura’s breadth of experience across many brand categories, including CPG, TelCo, Financial Services and Retail, allows her to approach her client’s business with a diverse skill set. Laura is a true brand champion. She is passionate about helping clients’ meet their business challenges with creative solutions that deliver solid results.

Laura is a graduate of the University of Toronto where she completed her B.Comm, specializing in Marketing.

John Macdonald

With more than 20 years’ experience in retail – gained not just in retail design but as a senior retail manager responsible for merchandising – John has a keen knowledge of shopper behaviour, retail management and merchandising, and is able to ensure that Watt’s retail projects are managed effectively and delivered on budget and on time.

John sees his role as a pragmatic design manager, ensuring both accuracy in delivery and pushing for out-of-the box solutions in today’s highly competitive and challenging retail environment. As a practitioner, not only does he take pride in executional excellence, he also contributes to building design excellence through mentoring as a part-time professor at Ryerson University, where he teaches courses in the Retail and Hospitality Design program.

Bryan Morris

Senior Creative Director

bmorris@wattisretail.com

Bryan leads our graphics and communication creative teams, which are responsible for creative executions across marketing communications, packaging, merchandising, digital and other creative solutions. As a key member the Watt team since 2000, he brings his vision and leadership to mentor and develop creative using compelling imagery and copywriting. Passionate and engaged, Bryan’s focus is on creating marketing solutions that resonate with consumers and shoppers to build brands and shareholder value.

Bryan’s work is focused on telling the stories of our client’s brands in a relevant and compelling way, and during his time at Watt he has applied his experience to a diverse range of projects, including retail environments, commercial developments, quick service restaurants, packaging, and branding.

Working with the design team, he guides a variety of projects, including brand development, name generation, content development, and communication and design strategies. Bryan is a graduate of the School of Arts and Communications at Seneca College.

Michael Nussbacher

Michael is our key point of contact in establishing relationships with clients that drive mutually beneficial results. As our new business lead, he is responsible for developing relationships and identifying opportunities to solve our clients’ business problems. Michael’s focus is on evaluating clients’ competitive and market landscapes, and identifying solutions that respond to their business challenges.

Michael has an extensive background in digital marketing that spans two decades. His experience in both strategic insight and innovation means he can balance conventional retail fundamentals with innovation, thereby enabling Watt to help drive value for our clients and react effectively to the rapidly evolving retail landscape.

His experience has placed him at the forefront of digital and retail integration, which has included the development of mobile assets for Aldo shoes as well as clients in the automotive and alcohol sectors, and other verticals.

Alexa Retchkiman

A key member of the client management team here at Watt for the past two decades, Alexa has substantive experience across major retailers in both North and South America. Some of the many projects she has worked on include: defining the private label strategy for Walmart’s Great Value and Equate brands; building an award-winning experiential retail format for Häagen-Dazs; re-envisioning the brand experience for Vips, Mexico’s largest food service chain; and working with diverse major retailers including Walgreens, Kroger, Hudson’s Bay, Gigante, Liverpool, Recubre, and The Home Store.

Alexa is passionate about delivering seamless client service, ensuring that her projects are delivered on time and within budget. As an advocate for her clients, Alexa continually seeks new ways to drive forward business results for her clients and ensure that every initiative delivers strong returns on investment.

Alexa is fluent in three languages and holds an honours Bachelor of Arts degree from the Center of Studies in Communication Sciences in Mexico City, with a specialization in marketing and advertising.

Liliana Saavedra

As a member of the client management team here at Watt International, Liliana is always looking for ways to help clients realize the vision for their brands. She sees nurturing relationships and building strong connections as a key part of her role.

For Liliana, delivering against a client’s vision involves fully understanding their needs and plans, helping them to right-size opportunities, and helping them translate opportunities into executable designs. She is passionate about the opportunity to use design thinking to create impactful designs that can change the world of shopping.

As a Colombian herself, Liliana is particularly proud of work undertaken for the retail brand Éxito in her home country. This project involved taking the brand in a completely new direction, away from its traditional equities, and creating a new brand experience that delivered against shopper and consumer needs.

Jeff Wilbee

As Creative Director at Watt, Jeff is charged with overseeing the design concepts produced by his team of designers and creatives. As the lead creative contact on some of our major accounts, Jeff prides himself on delivering creative excellence. Jeff understands the need to develop creative that engages shoppers and consumers within their frame of reference and delivers strong revenue results for our clients.

Jeff plays a key role in mentoring designers here at Watt, pushing for solutions that break through. His skill is reflected in the many award-winning campaigns he has worked on, including a CASSIE. As a creative, his focus is ensuring that programs deliver synergy across many different brand touchpoints.

Jeff is a Humber and OCAD graduate, and is a key player in Watt’s commitment to ‘giving back’ through initiatives that inspire future creatives and designers, such as our annual CoLab, where the Watt team mentors students with real world creative challenges.

Justin Ali

Justin manages projects from initial brief creation to final delivery. Working alongside the creative teams, he ensures projects are delivered on time, on budget, and on scope.

He steers projects that range in scale from grand openings to specific program and product launches, and coordinates production of creative across various communication channels – from in-store signage to print, digital, and broadcast media.

In his two years at Watt, Justin has honed his skills working on a number of key accounts, most notably Price Chopper/Market 32, and TD Bank.

Justin’s a real people person who works well with colleagues and clients, and really ‘gets’ today’s shoppers. His keen interest in human behaviour led to a B.A. in Social Sciences (Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology) at the University of Toronto, followed by a graduate certificate in Marketing Management at Seneca College.

Miranda Allum

A passionate designer who believes strongly in creating cohesive brand experiences across all touchpoints, Miranda loves the process of collaborating with the rest of the Watt team to deliver great design results for our clients.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western University in Media, Information and Technoculture, as well as a certificate in Graphic Design with Honours from the George Brown College (GBC) School of Design. Her final year thesis received the award for “Best Branding” across her entire graduating class. She was also heavily involved with the GBC IN Studio, helping manage both the brand and online presence for their initiative.

Prior to Watt, Miranda worked for a number of years as a design intern with the Canadian CARE (Community Academic Research and Education) faculty, producing conference reports and designing support materials for their events. She is currently a board member with YES! Toronto (Young Executives for Success), a group of women who volunteer their time to organize networking events in support of Dress for Success Toronto.

Mary Bui

Environmental Designer

mbui@wattisretail.com

Mary is interested in the finer details of architectural explorations, and firmly believes every space has the potential to delight and surprise. She is passionate about using the design of space and things to help improve daily life.

At Watt, she has worked on delivering design solutions for a number of retailers, including: Ilusión, Innvictus, Modatelas (Mexico); and Nike. Her prior experience ranges from the design of residential amenity spaces to working for a start-up at the Design Fabrication Zone (DFZ) at Ryerson University, and attending various hackathons.

Mary holds a Bachelor of Design degree in Environmental Design from OCAD University (Ontario College of Art and Design).

Angela Chan

Senior Graphic Designer

achan@wattisretail.com

Angela’s role at Watt is chiefly to design print and digital elements for McDonald’s. But thanks to her multidisciplinary background – in math, advertising design, and photography – her contribution to the Watt team is broad, and also includes directing McDonald’s photoshoots and creating PowerPoint presentations for new business pitches.

She brings 25+ years’ experience in the advertising business and has worked on a number of big name brands, including: Home Depot, Pharmasave, RBC Royal Bank, Purdue Pharma, Abbott, Dairy Farmers of Ontario, TD Canada Trust, CIBC, CRES Tech, and Transport Canada.

Ian Gough

Intermediate Designer

igough@wattisretail.com

Ian is a designer of graphics, wayfinding, packaging, environmental graphics, advertising and marketing graphics, and art director of photoshoots, presentations, and print graphics.

Ian is a designer environmental graphics, advertising and marketing graphics, wayfinding and packaging, and art director of photoshoots, presentations, and print graphics.

During his four years with Watt, Ian has worked on delivering design solutions for a wide range of brands, from food and sports to perfume and banking. Key accounts include McDonald’s, Coppel, Nike/Xebio, La Sirena, Market 32, PICS, Mark’s, VIPS, Coty, Innovasport, Raffaele, and TD Bank.

Ian taps into his broad educational background – in Fine Arts, Fashion and Costume Design, and Graphic Design – for inspiration to always find new ways to articulate his vision, which is ‘to make the world better, one design at a time’.

Caitlin Harel

Senior Graphic Designer

charel@wattisretail.com

As a Senior Graphic Designer at Watt, Caitlin collaborates with colleagues to conceptualize new and creative ideas for McDonald’s. Working closely with the creative director, Caitlin art directs photoshoots, designs in-store marketing, and oversees program rollouts.

Prior to joining the Watt team, Caitlin honed her creative skills at a sports hospitality company and a startup as in-house designer. She holds a Bachelor of Design from Ryerson University.

John Hernandez

A marketer with robust experience in project management and the development of B2C & B2B business strategies, John manages the day-to-day progress and execution of projects from initial briefing to final delivery.

Juggling a number of projects at a given time, John deftly coordinates the activities of the various teams involved – account management, strategy, environmental design, and graphic design.

How to summarize John’s role? The short answer is he ensures the work produced is of the highest quality within the planned timeline and budget.

The long answer is that his role involves: supporting the creative process and managing expectations; setting up briefings, project kick-offs, brainstorming sessions and presentations to clients; advising leadership on upcoming workflow and resource requirements; ensuring any issues are discussed and resolved in a timely manner; attending biweekly financial status meetings; and providing support to VPs of International Client Development in their new business initiatives.

Oh – and this all in English and Spanish.

Before completing his B.A. in Business Communications at Brock University, John studied Business Administration in his native Colombia. Back home his family owned and operated grocery stores for over 30 years…so retail is in his blood!

Tim Klein

Senior Designer

tklein@wattisretail.com

Tim’s expertise is in planning, producing working drawings, 3D modelling, and computer animation. In his 30-year career, Tim has worked on projects around the world – from North and South America to Scandinavia, Japan, Israel, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates.

His guiding principle is that since everyone interacts with retail throughout the day, our job is to make that experience pleasant and memorable. Successful, human-centred design is good for the consumer and the merchant’s bottom line.

Natalie Lake

Intermediate Designer

nlake@wattisretail.com

As a designer with an academic background in psychology, Natalie has a keen ability to understand the customer’s mind-set and always integrates this perspective into her design work.

In her four years at Watt, Natalie’s focus has been on graphic design and art direction for a wide range of branding projects, including: Market 32, Price Chopper, Foodland Ontario, PetSmart, McDonald’s, Mark’s Work Wearhouse, PICS, The Shoe Company, Coty, Coppel, Vittorio Forti, and TD Canada Trust.

Natalie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from McMaster University and a Bachelor of Design in Advertising degree from The Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD). She enjoys giving back to OCAD and other design schools by attending portfolio reviews and other design workshops to help future creatives. She also enjoys continuously learning, and recently completed User Interface Design at BrainStation.

Rachel Mak

Designer

rmak@wattisretail.com

Rachel joined the Watt team in 2016 and has worked on a number of accounts, including Vittorio Forti, Ilusíon, Price Chopper/Market 32, and McDonald’s.

After completing her studies in Animation at Sheridan College, Rachel was drawn by her passion for digital design to Parsons School of Design in New York City. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Communication Design, then worked as a Designer at ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers).

Alex Walderman

Alex is a seasoned marketing and communications professional with international experience in brand planning, strategic communications, digital and traditional advertising, shopper marketing, private label brand development, and client services. He has built marketing strategies and advertising campaigns for Rogers, Red Bull, Kraft, and Tim Hortons, among others.

An educational background in Sociology and Public Relations (Western University) has contributed to Alex’s keen ability to develop and deliver clear messages that allow consumers to connect with brands on an emotional level.

Jill Williamson

Senior Client Manager

jwilliamson@wattisretail.com

Jill joined the Watt team in 2007 and now works as a Senior Client Manager. Jill’s main area of focus has been Client Management and project rollouts for package design for clients such as A&P, Kroger and more recently Price Chopper, as well as environmental retail design project management for clients including Canadian Tire, The NorthWest Company, Price Chopper and Mark’s Work Wearhouse.

Jill provides seamless execution of complex projects involving a multitude of design elements and challenging timelines. From initial design concepts through to final production artwork, Jill provides a unique blend of experience within the advertising, package design and retail world that ensures clients are provided with effective solutions delivered with a tireless enthusiasm.